The Siskel Film Center at the Art Institute of Chicago announced its lineup for this year's Black Harvest Film Festival, which begins Nov. 7.
"Black storytelling has always been a ceremony -- calling forth what must be seen, felt and remembered," said Black Harvest Film Festival Curator jada-amina in a statement. "When we gather in the dark before the big screen, a covenant forms -- film and filmmaker, film and the faithful -- each breathing life into the other. Black Harvest extends that lineage, reminding us that to see is sacred, to listen is to learn -- and to keep the light even after the screens go dark."
From the Block is an event that features short works from Chicago filmmakers. It showcases work by local talent, festival alumni and new voices. This year's theme is "Homelands." It's about "films that trace memory, longing and return, reflecting how the idea of home reverberates across the diaspora."
One of the biggest features this year is BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, a documentary written and directed by Khalil Joseph. The film is "a bold new theatrical release that journeys through the Black Atlantic -- formally daring, expansive and visionary, a work destined to shape the canon," the press release said.
Move Ya Body: The Birth of House, is a documentary film by Elegance Bratton that shows the history of house music and its birth in 1979 after "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park.Paw Paw & Dayja is a family comedy by Gregory Alan Williams about a 10-year-old girl who is obsessed with finding Bigfoot and how she and her grandfather search for the creature.
Closing night on Nov. 16, the festival will screen Black Girl, the 1972 movie directed by Ossie Davis. The film, "a tender coming-of-age portrait of a young dancer torn between the weight of the world and her dreams" and adapted from J.E. Franklin's acclaimed play, has been restored in 4K by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation.
